Here’s how to do it:

A list of your bank and merchant accounts will appear, along with the months that you have transaction data for. The months that have blue check marks above them have been reconciled.

Scroll to the bank account you need, and click on the month you want to reconcile.

You’ll see the balance ZipBooks shows for the beginning of the month, the change recorded during that month, and the resulting ending balance. On the next line, you’ll see the same data for the account you’re reconciling. Enter the beginning balance (which will already be there if you’ve reconciled the month before), and the ending balance from your bank statement.

In the box on the right, you’ll see the number of transactions that are unconfirmed. You’ll see a list of transactions below the balances. Look at the first transaction on your bank statement and find the same one on your ZipBooks account. Click the check mark inside a circle on the right side to clear this transaction, if it’s not already cleared. Do this for every transaction on your bank statement. You can also bulk confirm transactions to save time.

When you’re finished, the box to the right of the balances will show the difference in the two ending balances. For example: Your ZipBooks ending balance is $3000, but your checking account balance is $2500. You’ll see a difference in red of $500.

If a certain transaction from your bank statement is not in your ZipBooks account, create the transaction by clicking the round green + button. Then find the transaction in the list and click the checkmark to clear it.

And you’re done. Sometimes, you won’t get things to match up exactly, and you might wonder why. There are a few reasons your amounts might not balance perfectly.

If there are transactions on ZipBooks that aren’t on your bank statement:

Someone you paid may not have cashed your check yet.

A payment you made electronically may not have processed before your statement period ended.

You may have received checks as payments for goods or services, and forgotten to cash them after recording them in ZipBooks.

Note: Make sure to check that all expenses from any of your accounts were made by you, or your employees. It’s easier for people to get away with fraud if you don’t ever check your bank accounts!